© Willy Pragher In opening this longish Insight text, I want to dwell on another text delivered 85 years ago this week by one the greatest minds of the twentieth century. This was entitled ‘The Self Assertion of the German University’, and was given on the occasion of Martin Heidegger’s appointment as chancellor of Freiburg… Continue reading “Heidegger and intellectual applicability: the good, the bad and the ugly”
Radical right movements are typically defined by—and understood through—their ideological platforms and rhetoric. Sometimes overlooked, aesthetics are surprisingly central to modern radical right movements, whose leaders often extol the virtues of physical fitness and a polished public image. Radical right parties don’t merely envision a set of political positions and policies, in other words—but also… Continue reading “The Radical Right’s Cult of the Body”
Nativism is the norm in much of Europe, where dual welfarism and welfare chauvinism is policy. Nativist rhetoric and ideology has trickled down from radical right politicians to the mainstream and has become the new normal. The days are gone when the welfare state was supported as a safety net for those who needed it… Continue reading “Welfare chauvinism and the ‘hostile environment’ for immigration”
The latest Home Office release of data on its counter terrorism Channel programme highlights the need for research on its efficacy in countering right wing extremism. In late March 2018, Britain’s Home Office released its latest set of statistics on the Prevent Strategy and its associated Channel programme. These figures indicate there have been “improved”… Continue reading “Interventions into the radical right – We need to ask the right questions”
©Getty Images In the months since white supremacist blogger Andrew Anglin urged his followers to dress in “hip” and “cool” ways at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., far-right fashion has rapidly evolved. The clean-cut aesthetic of the white polo shirts and khakis that drew national attention last August has been supplanted by new brands marketing to and for… Continue reading “The Rise of Fascist Fashion: Clothing helps the Far Right sell their violent message”
Britain’s radical right is at a worrying crossroads. ‘[P]olitically marginalised, fractured, leaderless and increasingly violent’, Britain’s radical-right is now more ‘isolated and in retreat’ than at any point over the past twenty years – ‘becoming more extreme and violent’ in the process. Despite popular outbursts of nationalism and xenophobia after the 2016 EU referendum, it… Continue reading “A Peculiar Turn for Britain’s Radical Right? ‘Islamisation’, Vigilantism and Britain First”
Democracy is presently in a recession. Freedom House’s (an independent research institute) annual report for 2018 indicates that for the 10th consecutive year the world’s citizens, taken in the aggregate, are less free (meaning enjoy less political rights and civil liberties) than was true in earlier years. Some countries included in the report as ‘free’… Continue reading “Mood Swings: Freedom, Democracy and the Latest Right-Wing Populist Upsurge”
It is hard to deny Brexit’s important place within recent radical right discourse and activity. Recently, Paul Stocker’s excellent book English Uprising has captured this part of that debate. The radical right had a significant impact in dictating the tone and trajectory of the Leave campaign, especially away from the official Vote Leave platform. Equally,… Continue reading “Back to the Future? Comparing Radical Right Referendum Results, 1975 and 2016”
Email: a.kallis@keele.ac.uk Position: Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, School of Humanities, Keele University. Specialist research areas: Fascist ideology and practice since 1918; the Holocaust; Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; radical right movements and ideologues; mass violence and genocide; prejudice; social exclusion; radicalisation; mainstream-extremism nexus. Available for consultation in the following areas: Policy formation / reports; government… Continue reading “Professor Aristotle Kallis”
©Radek Pietruszka/European Pressphoto Agency Some weeks ago, Charles A. Kupchan (2018) wrote in the New York Times, that the “Battle Line for Western Values Runs Through Poland”.[1] He argued, that since coming to power in 2015, Poland’s government “has sought to control the news media, purged and politicized the civil service, and intimidated intellectuals and… Continue reading “Poland: A Special Case of Radical Right Mobilizations”